


Like Fools

by parttimefemmefatale (writingramblr)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (TV Movie 1996)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s01e01 Rose, Episode: s01e03 The Unquiet Dead, Episode: s01e10 The Doctor Dances, Episode: s01e13 The Parting of the Ways, F/M, Gen, Season/Series 01, Time Vortex, eight as the first doctor rose meets, rose and mickey are not a thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 05:08:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8784340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingramblr/pseuds/parttimefemmefatale
Summary: Rose Tyler's world turns upside down when the Doctor shows up, in green velvet with blue eyes like summer skies and a smile like the sun. [this is a reimagining of Season one with Eight as Rose's first Doctor]





	

**Author's Note:**

> re-posting after having edited and cleaned it up, and plopped it into one long part instead of a series. man i was dumb with planning.
> 
> originally written October 2014ish

The Doctor was only able to sit still for one round of the song before it began skipping again, and he reluctantly set his book down, and rushed to fix the record.

As he did so, he paused at the console.

Why couldn’t he go back? Try again. Ask the bewitching Doctor Grace to come with him again.

He _never_ asked twice. But she’d helped him so much. She deserved another chance. After all, the TARDIS had brought her back to life. She had to be important.

A flick of a switch and a twist of a knob, and the TARDIS was back in the Vortex, headed directly for earth.

He was careful to keep the range in the 21st century, but for some reason, the date levers were sticking, and he couldn’t fine tune it.

If he’d been superstitious, which he wasn’t, he’d have crossed his fingers.

*

Rose Tyler awoke to her alarm clock blaring at her, pulling her from her anxious dreams. She’d had a horrid nightmare that her mother Jackie had been convincing her to go back to school, but the trouble was, she didn’t have the money. Not at least until the end of the summer, or even the month. Rose Tyler was not the type of girl to spend money frivolously. Not when she was faced with living back with her mum to survive.

No ta, as her boyfriend Mickey would say.

Reluctantly, she began to get ready for work, and fought back the urge to grumble. Her pet cat, thanks to Mickey, named cleverly, ‘Cat,’ wasn’t about to lend an ear to her complaints.

Just once, she wished something exciting could happen. More than having bad dreams about being forced to get A-levels.

*

The TARDIS wheezed to a stop, and the Doctor nearly flew out the doors in his eagerness. That was new. He’d only been so enthusiastic when he realized his shoes were finally a perfect fit.

He stopped short, and frowned. The sky was grey, and the chill of the air was almost enough to bite at him through the velvet of his jacket, and overwhelm his Time Lord temperature regulation.

This was not where he’d left Grace.

He was back in London.

The Doctor rushed back inside to check the console, and read the view screen in dismay.

It showed he had landed in London, England, in the year 2005.

Just a bit off. Perhaps he could look her up?

Re-animated, the Doctor set off in search of a public library, or anywhere with a reliable information database.

Using the TARDIS might have been a bit risky. It would be too easy to get multiple future results with her data.

*

When Rose met Mickey for lunch, it cheered up her already gloomy day. It wasn’t merely the weather that put a damper on her spirits, but it definitely helped. Helped in the worst way.

She’d barely held back her teeth from chattering as they’d sat by a fountain munching on chips. She’d worn her favorite pink hooded jumper but it wasn’t heavy enough by far. She made a mental note to put some of next week’s paycheck, along with her employee discount, towards a new jumper. Maybe something in leather, with a fuzzy collar to keep her neck warm.

She didn’t bother asking Mickey for advice. She knew he’d roll his eyes at the idea of fluff, and probably stick out his tongue at leather.

By the time her shift ended, and she was headed around, turning off lights, Rose was about ready to drop.

When she heard a strange clatter from the basement level stairs, she wondered if something was wrong with the maintenance office, so she headed down to look things over.

“Is everything alright down there? You know we’re closing right?”

Nothing could be heard, but Rose pressed on. She opened the door that led to the mannequin storage, and walked cautiously towards the office.

“Hello?”

The door slammed shut behind her, and she whirled around to see no one there.

Rose wasn’t easily frightened, but just then she started to wonder what around her could be used as a potential weapon, in an emergency.

*

The Doctor was slumped in the jump seat in the console room of the TARDIS, tea and book beside armoire long abandoned.

He’d found out why he was in London.

Or rather, why he wasn’t in America.

Grace Holloway had passed away nearly three years back, in a fatal car crash.

The Doctor had already considered going back to try and stop it, but he knew how dangerous that would be. How ridiculous it was to think about.

But it seemed so unfair. So cruel. To be brought back to life to do great things, only to perish a short two years after?

The Doctor knew that life could be wasted or lived in any amount of time, but he couldn’t find a way to justify what had happened.

His hand drifted up to switch back on the engines, to return to the vortex, when something began to beep. He looked up at the view screen to see a rogue signal.

It was beaming out from the top of a department store.

‘Very strange.’ He thought to himself.

After the TARDIS broke down the wavelength and analyzed the signal, he saw it was for the animation of plastic.

‘Who could want to do this?’

He puzzled over the information, before grabbing his sonic screwdriver, and pocketing his watch. Since he was around, he might as well be of some use.

He piloted the TARDIS to land a block away from the store, and then was out the doors, holding his sonic high, letting it lead him to the signal’s origin.

*

Rose couldn’t truly comprehend what was going on. It had to be some horrible joke. The kids from her building, down the hall, they were just playing around.

“Stop it. It’s not funny. You’ve had your laugh. Okay? You got me. Now stop it!”

The Mannequins didn’t give any indication that they’d heard her, or maybe they just weren’t listening anymore.

She didn’t know or care, she just knew she wasn’t ready to die in the basement of Henriks, for a measly hourly wage job, the handbook of which never covered anything like this.

She’d screamed almost before she’d even meant to, as the closest Mannequin raised its arm and swung for her head.

Footsteps sounded near her, and she turned to see a real human being, albeit a strange looking man, with a long green coat, made of velvet.

He stuck out his hand, and she looked at it only second before he spoke,

“Take my hand, and run!”

*

The Doctor had been halfway up the stairs, after breaking in the back door, a foot away from the service elevator when he heard the scream. His eyes went wide, and he began to hasten towards the sound. Never mind the signal, someone was in danger.

He threw open a door to find a young woman surrounded by Mannequins, clearly brought to horrific life by the signal beaming out above them.

He reached her side, and held out his hand, without a word, she took it and together they ran for the service elevator.

They made it inside just before the closest Mannequin caught up to them.

A single arm had attempted to grab the girl but was chopped off by the rising of the car.

She screamed again and the Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at it, rendering it lifeless.

“I cancelled the signal. So it’s just plastic now. It won’t hurt you.”

He turned to face the girl, who now looked just a bit calmer, and gave her a smile, hopefully reassuring her.

She blinked at him, and then continued to stare at the arm that was now lying still on the floor of the car.

“What was that? They were students weren’t they? Mucking about, thinking they’d have a laugh, making my closing harder than it needed to be.”

The Doctor shook his head,

“No, I’m afraid not. They were not human, never had been. Just plastic. But they’ve been brought to life somehow, for some reason. I’m here to stop it. There’s a transmitter on the roof, I believe. That’s where the signal is strongest.”

The girl looked at him like he’d grown a second head, and perhaps she was right to. His manners were atrocious. He’d not even introduced himself.

He held out his hand again, and she gave it a wary glance, now that there was no imminent danger, being alone with a strange man was yet another time for caution.

“I’m the Doctor. Forgive me, but may I ask your name?”

The girl took his hand, but held it just between her index finger and thumb, as if he might shock her with his touch.

“’m Rose. Rose Tyler. I work here. I just work here. The roof did you say?”

The Doctor grimaced,

“Yes, unfortunately. And I’m not really the biggest admirer of heights. I wonder, Rose Tyler, if you might accompany me? You’d not have to do a thing, except perhaps keep an eye on that arm. If all goes well, the entire basement of those creatures will become quiet once again.”

Rose swallowed, before answering in a tiny voice,

“Okay.”

*

Rose was still running on quite a bit of adrenaline, and when she’d followed the strange man in the green velvet coat outside to the rooftop, she realized how odd he was.

He introduced himself as ‘the Doctor,’ but Doctor what? His name couldn’t just be the Doctor. She watched as he approached a tall metal spire, one that resembled a television antenna, but there were no television screens inside Henriks.

“Is that it? That’s what’s making those things come alive?”

The Doctor nodded, seemingly lost in thought as he waved a long chrome stick with a red pulsing light on the end over the antenna.

He suddenly groaned in frustration.

“There’s no way to cancel it without destroying it! If I don’t destroy it, who knows what sort of damage they could cause.”

He seemed to be talking mostly to himself, but Rose stepped closer, and tried to think of something comforting to say.

She was going to try and comfort a strange man with a strange flashlight and very, very strange clothing.

“Maybe we could just call the police yeah? They’d know what to do.”

Rose didn’t even believe what she was saying, but it sounded good.

Apparently the Doctor disagreed. He moved back from the antenna, which Rose noticed was indeed dangerously close to the edge of the roof, and turned to face her, suddenly placing his hands on her arms, and forcing her to look into his eyes.

They were a bright blue, and she might have even been a bit giggly if the situation hadn’t been as dangerous as it was.

“Rose Tyler, please listen to me. I need you to leave this building, quick as you can. You were the only one left inside is that right?” She nodded, unable to speak. “Excellent. Now please, get away from here immediately, and don’t turn back. I’ve got to destroy this, and I might have to--- well that’s not important. Just go, and be careful.”

Rose wasn’t sure why she was taking advice from this madman, but she nodded again, and just like that he’d let go of her, and she started walking backwards towards the doorway, to the elevator.

She’d made it a half a block away when she heard an enormous explosion, and she looked back to see the roof of Henriks in flames.

Her hand flew to her mouth, and she could only stare in horror,

“Oh my god.”

*

Wiring the device to self destruct had not been the hardest part, in fact, it was almost second nature to the Doctor, but getting off the roof without looking down had certainly come close.

Rose Tyler.

Now _she_ had been intriguing. He’d almost wished he hadn’t had to send her off, but trying to get off the roof together, as he had, might have proved truly impossible.

As he made his way back to the TARDIS, he decided he would look her up. See if she had anything extremely time sensitive surrounding her, and if not, he would find her, and ask her to join him.

What did he have to lose?

*

Rose didn’t do coffee shops. But she also didn’t usually have free afternoons. The perks of being unemployed, because a total stranger, a bit pretty as he was, had blown up one’s job.

Utterly life changing, but simultaneously depressing.

Rose sat at the high table overlooking the entire shop, and dragged her finger around on top of the marble. She was still debating with herself whether it was real or just a good paint job when she heard footsteps approaching her. Familiar ones.

She looked up from the black and white streaked marble to find the strange man who’d been haunting her dreams. So maybe she had missed him. She’d certainly regretted letting him go without passing along a number or any sort of deeper introduction.

He noticed her almost as soon as she’d noticed him. So he was looking for her?

“Of all the coffee shops in the world, you walk into mine.”

She smiled at him, attempting a clever yet flirty look, and he only kept his awestruck expression. It wore on so long she was starting to become slightly worried.

“Are you okay?”

He stepped right up to where she still sat, and placed his hand on the table, right next to her now bone chilled coffee cup, and she felt as if she was rather trapped.

“Rose Tyler. You are a mystery. Not a mystery, as in hard to find, but something else entirely.”

He was still looking at her as if she was a specimen behind glass, but she noticed the awe in his voice, and it sent a flutter down her spine.

“What are you talking about? And why are you dressed like that? Come to think of it, why do you sound so weird?”

Rose leaned away from him, and took in his look. He’d changed his jacket to a dark navy velvet, and his long brown hair was falling around his face in almost perfect curls. Yet he didn’t seem the type of bloke to spend hours on his hair. No, he was only of the lucky few.

He beamed at her, and shifted his hand so it was poised before her, ready to whisk her away again,

“I will answer all your questions if you answer mine.”

Rose cocked a brow at him, and the suspicion was evident in her voice,

“Which is?”

“Would you come with me?”

“Where?”

“I want to show you something.”

Rose knew there were only a handful of things that sentence could imply, but she still found herself abandoning her cold coffee and taking the Doctor’s hand.

*

The Doctor knew he’d only asked her to visit his ship with him, but he still felt rather giddy, as if when he asked her to travel with him, she’d answer just as positively.

When he paused in front of the TARDIS, Rose had pulled back, the look of confusion a familiar one to him.

“What is this? A police box? If anything, I’m the one that should be leading _you_ to one of these.”

The Doctor smiled, and shook his head,

“Just wait.”

The key turned swiftly in the lock, and he threw open the doors.

Rose followed him wordlessly inside, and then she suddenly couldn’t find any words to describe it all.

Inside the police box was a beautiful library, in which she could hear soft music playing, and the center of the room led to a circular room, with a high table of sorts, with knobs, buttons, and all manner of contraptions sticking out over it.

“What is this? How does it fit inside such a small thing?”

The Doctor grinned, before walking over to the prominent display screen that was perched above all the controls.

“It’s called the TARDIS. T-A-R-D-I-S. Stands for Time and relative dimension in space. The better question is why am I showing you all this?”

Rose gaped at him, and managed a shrug.

“Because you have the most confusing timeline of anyone I’ve ever met. It’s impossible for me to get a read on it. It changes with every single thing you do, whether it’s a breath in and out, or a flick of your fingers.” At this, Rose lifted her hand, experimentally opening and closing her fist.

The Doctor nodded,

“Just like that. But then, even if I try to look ahead, it’s all shrouded in this bright haze.”

Rose looked confused, and he couldn’t blame her.

“Let me try to explain. Those plastic things? They were alive because of that transmitter. The transmitter was placed there by a conscious entity. An alien. It’s not gone, it’s just been delayed by a couple days. Whatever it’s planning for this city, it’s not over yet. I’m going to need your help. So I’m here, asking you. Will you help me Rose?”

Rose walked around the console, and paused, looking out at the library.

“How can all this be real? I just know I’m gonna wake up in a minute to that bloody alarm clock, or maybe a phone call from mum.” She rolled her eyes, and walked over to plop down in the very chair that the Doctor had been reading in just a few days previous.

The Doctor followed her, and stood in front of her, gazing down at her slumping in the chair.

“It’s very real. I’m sorry if it’s a bit difficult to understand. I’m just as mystified as you.”

Rose gave him another once over, and made up her mind. She liked him, but she certainly didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him.

“Did you say alien? Is that what all this is too? Cause if this isn’t a dream, it’s sure not something I know of existing.”

The Doctor nodded.

“It’s alien. As am I. Is that alright?”

Rose chewed on her bottom lip a moment before replying,

“Yeah. But, why do you look human, I mean, you haven’t got pointy ears under that hair do you?”

The Doctor smiled, and shook his head, graciously lifting his brown curls up and away from his ears for her inspection,

“I’m a Time Lord. The truth is, humans look Time Lord. We were first. So if anyone looks alien, I’m going to have to say it’s you.”

Rose might have been insulted, even though she knew he was teasing, but the way those blue eyes of his focused on her just so, and with the grating of the engines of his magnificent ship filling her ears, together they combined to utterly hypnotize her.

She didn’t have the strength to argue.

“Can I have some tea? I didn’t really get a chance to finish my coffee. That’s your fault.”

The Doctor stepped away, and gave a shallow bow,

“Certainly. An excellent suggestion. A cup of tea for us both, before we save the world.”

Rose could have sworn he gave her a brief wink, and she didn’t bother protesting the whole ‘we’ thing.

*

Defeating the Nestine Consciousness had been a lot more difficult than the Doctor had anticipated. Of course for him, difficult was really a walk in the park. For Rose, she’d nearly gone out of her mind with fright at the sight of the huge growling creature, bent on destroying London, and indeed, the rest of the world.

But somehow, she’d managed to end up saving the Doctor’s life, when he’d lost focus and gotten himself captured by two Mannequins.

For that, he owed her at least three trips in the TARDIS, by his math.

When they’d returned back to the TARDIS, all well in the world, Rose had kept sneaking looks at him, and eventually he spoke,

“Are you alright?”

Rose nodded, and gave him a tentative smile,

“Oh yeah. Still in one piece eh? What about you? It seems like that plastic brain didn’t really like you.”

The Doctor grimaced,

“It was unfortunate that it wouldn’t listen to me. I hated having to do that,” he was referring to the use of the Anti-plastic, which Rose had basically done, so any guilt he was feeling, Rose was eager to dispel him from the blame.

“I’d have done it twice again if I had to. There was no way you could have stopped it. It would have killed everything in its way until earth was just a mass of living breathing plastic.”

Rose shuddered at the thought.

The Doctor stopped in front of the TARDIS console, and looked over at her, before flicking on a switch, and adjusting the time clock.

“Tell me Rose, where would you like to go? I think you deserve a change of scenery. I am eternally grateful to you for what you did back there, under the Eye.”

Rose finally felt his eyes on her, and meeting his gaze, she was astonished at the amount of warmth she felt coursing through her. As if she was the only thing in the room, which was ridiculous. The room was filled with wonders.

Suddenly her mind was blank.

“Er…”

The Doctor smiled,

“What about the future? Name the time, and we can go there.”

Rose stepped around the console, and looked up at the view screen, which read “Entering Time Stream.”

“That’s incredible. But I dunno, maybe a hundred years?”

The Doctor nodded, and began spinning the date wheel, while Rose waited in silent wonder.

She knew this was only the start of something that could change her life.

*****

At the same time as the Doctor was pondering how far in the future they should travel, Rose looked him over, before piping up,

"The way you dress, that's sort of Victorian isn't it?"

The Doctor might have blushed, or it had been a trick of the light from the console, Rose wasn't sure,

"It's just a costume I borrowed."

Rose shrugged,

"I didn’t mean I don't like it. I'm just saying, maybe we could visit the past first instead."

The Doctor relaxed visibly, and nodded, moving to action, turning the date wheels and alternately checking the view screen.

"How does Naples sound? 1860? Christmas eve?"

Rose nodded eagerly, and moved to stand beside him, eyes wide,

"What happens on Christmas eve in 1860?"

The Doctor turned to gaze at her briefly before his attention returned to the console,

"I have no idea. Let's find out!"

*

The TARDIS came to a groaning halt, with a sudden jerk that nearly threw Rose off the platform into the library. She managed to stay upright by clinging to the console with white knuckled hands.

The Doctor remained perfectly still, and even seemed to sway with the movement. Elegant and unruffled, that’s how he appeared.

Rose tried not to be jealous, but she knew he certainly had much more experience piloting the ship than she, the brand new passenger.

When the movement stopped, Rose nearly fell to the ground in relief at being still.

After she regained her energy, she nearly ran to the front doors in her excitement.

"Christmas eve is just outside! Imagine it. Christmas 1860, happened once. Then it’s over. But you, you get to see anything. All that history. No wonder you don't dress like the rest of us. You probably change your style after seeing a new one you like."

Rose eyed him again and this time she didn't want to tease his appearance, she was appreciating it.

Before she could pull open the front door, the Doctor had given a little cough.

Rose turned to see him looking pointedly at her.

"What is it?"

"I'm afraid you may start a riot out there dressed as you are."

Rose gulped.

"That wouldn't be a great first trip would it?"

The Doctor stepped over to her, and gestured for her to take his arm, she complied, feeling a bit puzzled yet not averse to it.

"If you'll come with me, I'll show you to the wardrobe room and there with my ships help you can find something to your liking, and within the times."

*

The Doctor had dropped Rose off at the door to the wardrobe, and returned to the console room, happily pouring himself a cup of tea to enjoy while he waited. He knew it was quite possibly he'd miss Christmas while he was waiting for Rose, but he didn't mind. The perks of having a time machine.

He heard soft footsteps and he turned around to see Rose walking towards him through the library.

But this was not the Rose Tyler who'd come in the TARDIS with him.

She was a vision.

She'd found a dark purple and black dress, with a beautiful black lace shawl and she'd pinned her hair up and off her shoulders.

A few stray blond waves fell around her face and simply drew the eye to her own hazel ones that much quicker.

The Doctor realized they practically matched now. He wasn't sure if that was more comforting or not.

"Don’t laugh. I know it probably looks ridiculous. I'm afraid I'm not as fashion flexible as you."

The Doctor would have chuckled at the irony of that statement and with that he’d have broken the ‘ _no laughing’_ rule, but he was too busy acting like an idiot still watching her as she moved towards him. He prayed to any powers that were listening that he'd not drop his tea cup.

Good china was so hard to come by.

"You look extraordinary. You needn't worry about causing a riot now. Except if we attend a dance of some sort."

Rose figured out what he was saying about a minute after she got over his compliment.

He was much too kind for a time traveling alien.

She beamed at him and gave a small curtsey.

She had horrible form, but the Doctor appreciated the gesture.

"Shall we?"

He held out his arm again for her, and Rose took it.

They went out the doors and the cold chill of the snowy air was almost too much for her, and she gave a visible shiver.

The Doctor noticed and shifted his arm to put it around her shoulder.

"Should we go back and find a heavier jacket for you?"

Rose shook her head,

"Nah 'm ok. We're almost to a building right?"

The Doctor shrugged,

"Everyone's headed towards that building there. We should as well."

Rose grinned at him,

"Blending in with the natives are we? Mind you, I don’t hear anyone speaking Italian."

The Doctor coughed abruptly,

"Ah yes. I'm afraid I may have made a slight miscalculation. We're not in Naples. And it's not 1860, it's Cardiff, around 1869. But it's still near Christmas. I believe it's the 23rd."

"I don't care. It's lovely. Thank you for-"

A scream startled them both, cutting through the murmuring of the people around them and traveling through the frigid air.

"Sounds like trouble!" The Doctor exclaimed, and they both began to run. He didn’t get a chance to explain to her how she wouldn’t have heard anyone speaking Italian anyway thanks to the TARDIS…but that conversation would have to wait for a later date.

*

It turned out the screaming had been started by the appearance of a strange blue haze that had emanated from an old woman, who by all accounts looked half dead.

The building the Doctor and Rose found themselves in was in fact a theater, one that none other than Charles Dickens was supposed to be performing in, but it seemed the reading had been cut short by the ghostly apparition.

The Doctor looked fascinated, and by more than the chaos causing spirit, but being able to share a stage with Charles Dickens!

Rose, for her part, was attempting to keep a low profile, she was half afraid she’d be spotted and somehow change history, she’d need to ask the Doctor about that later.

In the meantime, she tried to stay off to the side, but when a young girl with dark hair and haunted eyes walked past, heading straight for the old woman who’d collapsed, once the blue spirit had left her, Rose had to get the Doctor’s attention.

An older man appeared just after the dark haired girl and together they began to carry the old woman’s body out of the theater. They were stealing the evidence of any possible crime!

“Doctor!”

Rose waved her hand at him, hoping to get his attention, but he was quite distracted and in deep conversation with Charles Dickens, so she moved to follow the pair.

*

When the Doctor finally paused in the wonderful conversation he’d been having with his favorite author, and looked about, he realized in a heart stopping moment that Rose had vanished.

_‘Don’t wander off.’_

He’d not gone over the rules with her, so he couldn’t be angry with her.

It didn’t stop him from worrying.

“Charles, can I call you Charles? I must beg your leave. I’m missing my companion.”

He walked swiftly outside the theater, and made for the nearest coach, but before he climbed inside, he heard a scream, a familiar one.

“Rose!”

He saw a hearse moving away at a rapid clip and he knew that had to be where she was.

“Follow that hearse!” he shouted to the coach driver, before jumping inside.

The coach didn’t move for a moment, and Charles Dickens had climbed in before the Doctor could blink.

“Oh wonderful! You’re going to help me?”

He beamed at the author, who merely shook his head, a look of anger flashing across his face,

“No sir. I will not be any part of this. But you sir, are in my carriage. I suggest you exit immediately, or I shall have you shot.”

The Doctor gave him a wry smile,

“Did I ever tell you I’m your biggest fan? Love all your stories. Especially that one with Mister Scrooge.”

Charles’ expression melted into one of calm, and he rapped on the carriage wall, and they finally began moving.

“Please sir, explain to me how you are a fan? A means of cooling one’s self? Yet you know my most popular work?”

The Doctor chuckled,

“I’m your fan; it just means I admire your works. Except for the one with the trains. Could use a bit of revising.”

Charles looked a bit taken aback and made no sound.

The Doctor shrugged,

“Forgive me, but if you don’t receive criticism, you might never grow.”

The carriage came to a halt, and the Doctor jumped out, headed for the closest door.

He rapped on it sharply, and it opened just a crack, and he could see a dark haired girl with wide eyes behind it,

“I’m sorry sir, we’re closed.”

Charles elbowed the Doctor out of the way and scoffed at the girl,

“Nonsense. A morgue doesn’t keep usual business hours. Since when do the dead die on schedule? I demand to see your employer.”

The girl looked frightened, but not of Charles.

“Please sir, you must leave.”

Charles was rather forceful, and he shoved the door open, moving past the girl, shouting for assistance. The Doctor followed at a leisurely pace, examining every crack in the paint of the walls, and listening for creaks of the floor boards.

Something felt very strange about the building.

It wasn’t until he heard footsteps approaching and heard Charles’ raised voice along with the servant girl’s that he came out of his observation daze.

“He's not in, sir.”

“Don't lie to me, girl!”

A white haired gentleman suddenly appeared, and raised both hands in a surrendering manner,

“I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Dickens, but I’m indisposed, booked up, busy through the end of the week.”

As Charles opened his mouth to argue further, the gas lamps suddenly flickered.

The Doctor frowned at that, remembering how the blue haze from the theater had vanished into the nearest light. He walked right over to the lamp, and tried to discern what could be causing the power flux.

“Having trouble with your gas?”

Charles sounded exasperated,

“What in Shakespeare is going on?”

The old man shouted at him,

“How dare you, sir! This is my house!”

The Doctor began walking down a hallway, attempting to see if any other lamps were having the same issue.

Charles followed him, and the older man shook his head in frustration,

“I told you! Leave at once!”

A scream filled the momentary silence for the second time that night, and that time, the Doctor knew he’d been right. Rose was here, and now she was in danger.

“Where is she?”

He turned on the white haired man, and glared at him, but he gave no reply.

*

Rose had just come around, after having been shoved into the hearse, alongside the shockingly still dead body of the old woman from the theater. Whatever the girl had put over her face, perhaps a rag, had been soaked with chloroform, or some old fashioned version, and she’d been knocked unconscious.

She realized that she was lying inside a coffin, and she shuddered. She sat up and looked around, quickly spotting two other bodies, including the old woman.

All of a sudden, she noticed the second corpse beginning to sit up in his coffin.

Rose felt goose bumps rise up over her skin,

“Are you for real? You're kidding me, yeah? You're just kidding.”

The man began to climb out of his coffin, and Rose gave a nervous laugh,

“You are, you're kidding me, aren't ya?”

He began to take staggering steps towards her, and Rose didn’t feel like laughing,

“Okay, not kidding!”

She climbed out of her coffin and ran to the door, trying desperately to open it.

The old woman began to move towards her, and Rose started to feel true fear creeping over her.

“Please! Let me out! Open the door!”

The two corpses grew closer, and she pounded harder on the door,

“Let me out!”

When the man got close enough for his cold and clammy hand to brush over her back she screamed.

She kept screaming until she felt the hand cover her mouth, and she faintly hoped the Doctor had heard her.

*

The dark haired girl had followed the Doctor as he walked around the building, trying not to appear frantic,

“You're not allowed inside, sir.”

The Doctor tapped the side of a wall, listening to the echo,

“There's something inside there. It’s the gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas.”

Finally, the Doctor heard the pounding grow louder, and he turned to the girl,

“That's her, that’s Rose.”

He yanked the door open, and shoved the man who currently had a hand over Rose’s mouth away, and then put his own arm around Rose’s waist, bringing her to safety.

“I think this is MY dance.”

Charles had followed close behind, and even now as he stared at the two corpses he couldn’t understand it,

“It's a prank? It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence.”

The Doctor shook his head,

“No, we're not, the dead are walking.”

He looked at Rose, trying to ascertain if she was hurt,

“Hello, you all right?”

Rose smiled, grateful she could even move the muscles,

“Hello Doctor, I’m alive, so all in all, okay. Who's your friend?” She was too busy focusing on how the Doctor still had his arm around her, somewhat unnecessarily overprotective, to recognize the bearded man beside them.

“Charles Dickens.”

Rose gave him a shaky smile,

“Right. Okay. Hi.”

The Doctor turned his gaze onto the corpses, when he spoke; his voice had a dangerous edge,

“My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?”

The man spoke in an ethereal voice,

“We're failing. Open the rift, we're dying. Trapped in this form, cannot sustain. Help us.”

The two corpses raised their heads to the ceiling, and the blue haze, now identified as a strange sort of gas by the Doctor, left them with a wailing shriek, and then the bodies both fell to the floor.

Rose flinched away from them instinctively, and she realized the Doctor was still quite close to her, and therefore she’d practically thrown herself into his arms.

“Oh my. What was that?”

*

The girl, named Gwyneth, as Rose discovered after a brief chat, led the group to the parlor, and she poured them all a cup of tea.

Her white haired employer went by the name Sneed. Rose wasn’t impressed, and was frankly still annoyed at the man.

He’d forced his servant girl to drug her, and aided in her kidnapping.

She gave him a piece of her mind, and pretended not to notice the faint look of pride on the Doctor’s face.

Sneed looked angry,

“I won't be spoken to like this!”

Rose huffed,

“Too bad. You stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off! And leave me to die! So come on, talk! Tell us about this haunted house of yours.”

The Doctor smiled at her, even as Sneed began to try to explain,

“It's not my fault, it's this house! It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back. And then the stiffs...”

Charles looked rather offended at Sneed’s choice of words, and the man coughed, before continuing,

“The er, dear departed started getting restless.”

Charles didn’t look as if he believed him.

“You witnessed it! Can't keep the beggars down, sir! They walk. And it's the queerest thing that they hang on to scraps...” Sneed protested.

Gwyneth interrupted only to hand the Doctor his tea,

“Two sugars, sir, just how you like it.”

He gazed at her curiously, for he’d not spoken, and she’d not asked how he wanted it.

Sneed continued,

“One old fella who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service! Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir! Just as she planned.”

Charles still looked skeptical,

“Morbid fancy.”

The Doctor nearly rolled his eyes in annoyance,

“Oh, Charles, you were there.”

“I saw nothing but an illusion.”

The Doctor pursed his lips, and threw Rose a glance of exasperation,

“If you're going to deny it, please don’t bother. Just be quiet and let’s let the man finish.”

The stunned look on the authors face went unnoticed by the Doctor.

“What about the gas?” he asked Sneed.

“That's new, sir, never seen anything like that.”

The Doctor looked thoughtful,

“Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through.”

Rose frowned, confused,

“What's ‘the rift?’”

“A weak point in time and space. The connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time.”

Sneed looked as if he’d finally realized something,

“That's how I got the house so cheap. There were Stories going back generations. Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air and this feeling like a ... shadow. Passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at Rose, who barely kept from laughing. Typical businessman, using any and all means to make more money.

Even dangerous means.

*

They'd ended up in the morgue, surrounded by dead corpses brought back to life from the not-so-harmless gas creatures.

The Doctor had helped Gwyneth hold a séance, and with her amplified abilities from growing up on the rift, they'd communicated with the alien spirits.

They'd told the Doctor that they were seeking shelter from an enemy who sought to destroy them.

He'd agreed for Gwyneth to let them through the rift, where it was weakest. This led to them heading to the morgue.

That was the last place Rose had wanted to go, but she didn’t want to back out then.

She wouldn’t now either. Not now that she and the Doctor were trapped, inches from death at the cold clammy hands of undead.

The whole thing had gone wrong the instant Gwyneth had stepped under the archway, where the rift existed.

Rose had gotten a horrible feeling as she'd watched the girl calling out to the spirits. When they'd turned on the group, proclaiming they numbered in the billions, the Doctor had looked so betrayed.

He'd trusted them, and they'd lied to him.

He'd tried to help.

Now he was going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff, and he'd dragged Rose down with him.

He took her hand and looked at her, sadness evident in his gaze.

"I'm so sorry Rose. I never meant for any of this to happen."

She gave him a brave smile, and laced her fingers around his,

"It's okay. We'll go down fighting yeah?"

He nodded,

"I'm so glad I met you."

Rose felt his hand tighten,

"Me too."

Her eyes dropped from his blue ones, filled with sadness, and she found herself looking at his lips, and hell, if they were about to die, what was the harm?

She stretched up on her tip toes and impulsively pressed a quick kiss to his own, not even hearing his gasp of surprise.

*

 Before the Doctor could say anything, they'd been saved by the brilliance of Charles Dickens, he’d finally discovered the truth about the gaseous beings. At least, he’d come to terms with the fact that even if he didn’t understand it all, it was happening, and he could do something about it.

Gwyneth had also done her part, even as the Doctor had sent Rose and Charles away, while he stayed behind, the servant girl knew what she had to do.

The massive explosion that consumed the building mere seconds after Rose, Charles and the Doctor had gotten clear was startling.

It reminded Rose of that first meeting with the Doctor, and scared her a little.

Was this how things would always be?

Dangerous and life threatening?

Was there ever a dull moment?

Perhaps not.

They said farewell to Charles Dickens, and the Doctor later revealed to Rose, once safely back inside the TARDIS, that he was going to die within a year.

The brilliant author had turned his life around, only in time for it to end soon.

Rose knew it was inevitable, but it still made her sad.

"Rose, this means he's practically got a chance at a better way of using his time. He'll reconcile with his family, and die a happy man. By your time he was already gone. Don't be sad for him. Be glad for what we could do."

Rose smiled faintly, and watched him as he piloted the ship back into the time vortex,

"Is it always like this?"

The Doctor's hand froze on the console, and he looked over at her, suddenly less than cheery,

"Sometimes. Is that alright?"

Rose shrugged one shoulder, and tried to avoid his gaze,

"I dunno. It's just, all this makes me think I should maybe check in on mum. Let her know I'm okay. See how she is. Can we do that? Go back home for a bit?"

The Doctor felt himself relax. Of course. It was a perfectly reasonable request. He'd not even thought about what he had asked Rose to leave behind, if only temporarily.

"That sounds like an excellent plan. Where to?"

Rose gave him a real smile this time,

"London, 2005 if you please." If he wasn’t going to bring up the kiss first, neither would she.

The Doctor nodded,

"Here we go, hold on!"

*

A loud ringing startled the Doctor from his quiet reading, and nearly woke Rose up from her brief nap. She’d not meant to fall asleep, truly, but after the events of the previous trip, getting to meet her father, then having to watch him die, that had been enough to wear her out.

She still felt strange about the whole thing, some sort of residual guilt, she supposed. But as long as the Doctor wasn’t angry with her, she would find a way to think positive.

The Doctor had moved over to observe the view screen at the console, and suddenly he began to walk swiftly around it, flipping switches and pushing levers.

“What’s going on?”

The Doctor grinned at her,

“There’s something moving very fast towards earth, its mauve, the universal color code for dangerous.”

Rose frowned,

“Shouldn’t that be red?”

“Red’s too common a hull color. Now this, we have to see. It’s headed straight for the center of London. Shall we investigate?”

Rose nodded, and moved over to look at the view screen. To her, it simply looked as if they were chasing an asteroid, but if the Doctor said it was dangerous, perhaps they shouldn’t be so close after all.

“Wait a minute-“

A loud crash sounded, and the TARDIS jerked, sending them both flying to the ground.

Rose winced as she sat up, and she looked over at the Doctor, who looked thunderstruck.

“Did we hit it?”

Rose asked quietly, feeling the back of her head, where she knew there would be a large welt forming from hitting the floor so hard.

The Doctor shook his head,

“No, I’m afraid we may have missed it. At least by my calculations, it landed about a month before us. But I’m certain we can find it. We’ll just have to ask around. Ready to meet the locals?”

He stuck out his hand to her, helping her back to her feet, before noticing how she kept touching her head.

“Are you alright Rose?”

She shrugged,

“I just fell back a bit harder than I was ready for.”

The Doctor looked stricken,

“Oh no. Please forgive me. My driving skills fail me yet again. Hold still, just a moment.”

He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, and after adjusting something, held it up to her temple, and she felt a sudden warmth spread over her forehead and back to where she’d collided with the floor.

Within a moment, she couldn’t feel any aching or pain.

She lifted her hand back up and her fingers traced over the spot, but below her hair there was no lump.

“How did you do that?”

The Doctor shrugged,

“Just a bit of Jiggery pokery.”

Rose laughed,

“Oh yeah? You’ll have to teach me that sometime.”

“I shall endeavor to try. Now shall we go?”

Rose nodded, and took his offered arm, and together they stepped outside the front doors.

The Doctor hadn’t bothered to check the time, or he might have had her change. Rose had chosen a comfy white t-shirt that morning, with a brilliantly colored Union Jack on the front.

*

The instant they stepped outside the TARDIS, the Doctor felt himself tense up. He knew this time; he knew the sights, the sounds, and the smells of London. This was a time like no other.

Just as he was about to speak, to suggest Rose visit the wardrobe room, sirens began to fill the air.

Rose shivered in the night air, but not from the cold. She knew that sound, from films.

“What year is this?”

The Doctor gulped,

“I believe we’re in 1941, probably January, judging by the weather.”

Rose nodded, she’d guessed that much.

“We’ve landed smack dab in the middle of the Blitz. Good driving indeed.”

The Doctor attempted to look indignant, but just then, there was a sound unlike one he’d ever heard.

A ringing phone.

The unusual thing was, the phone in question was just outside the TARDIS doors.

“Who could have this number?”

Rose gestured to the ship, and the Doctor looked as confused as she felt.

“Better answer it hadn’t I?”

Rose shrugged, and the Doctor moved to pick up the receiver, when a voice called out,

“Don’t!”

*

When the Doctor had gone off with the young girl with the mystery about her presumed dead brother, Rose had gotten left behind.

The Doctor had told her not to wander off, but honestly where did he expect her to go? Ipswich? There was a war going on!

She was about to go back inside the TARDIS when she heard a sound above her, like a space ship, but when she looked up, she couldn’t see anything.

Maybe she was simply imagining things.

Then a voice called out,

“Hello there, fellow time traveler.”

Rose felt her body tense, and she turned around to quickly correct and protest whoever had thought they figured her out.

But her words died on her lips as she took in a dark haired, blue eyed square jawed hunk walking towards her.

“Hello.”

He was almost pretty enough to distract from the fact that she and the Doctor _still_ hadn’t touched upon the kiss they’d shared, well, she’d started, back in Cardiff.

“Hello.”

“Okay let’s not do that again.”

“I like your ship style, very, retro.”

Rose blushed, mostly on behalf of the TARDIS, considering that it wasn’t her ship in the first place.

“I’m sorry, who are you?”

The man grinned, and she felt her knees weaken,

“Captain Jack Harkness. Don’t ask how I know you’re a time traveler, I can tell. Technology detector on my ship started going nuts when you landed. I had to come introduce myself. I think I have something you might like.”

Rose’s head was spinning, and not simply because Jack had taken her hand and kissed it, when she’d simply been expecting a shake.

“Um, okay? What is it?”

He stepped closer to her, still holding her hand, and she almost forgot to breathe,

“I think it’s an alien spaceship. It’s crashed not far from here, landed about a month ago. I didn’t want to go in alone, not without backup.”

Rose cocked a brow at him,

“And how do you know I’m not an alien?”

Jack grinned,

“I think most aliens would be smart enough not to wear a union flag on their chest when visiting the Blitz.”

Rose frowned down at her shirt, and huffed,

“I like it. Besides, I didn’t know when I would be landing anyway.” She decided to play along with this captain, at least until the Doctor returned.

“I like it too. Very flattering. I love the hair too, I had no idea they were still using such old fashioned methods of coloring.” She felt him take a strand of her hair between his fingers, and he appeared to rub it gently before leaning close to sniff it.

“Smells like jelly beans. How do you do that?”

Rose giggled,

“Scented shampoo? My friend got it for me.”

Jack’s eyebrows lifted in surprise,

“Of course you aren’t traveling alone. I should have guessed. Pretty lady like you. Where is your friend?”

Rose gulped,

“He got a bit distracted by local wildlife I think. He should be back any minute. He’s the real pilot, he’d be the one you would really need to talk to, and who you’ll want by your side.”

Jack offered his arm,

“Would you care for some Champagne while we wait? My ship’s just over there.”

He pointed down the dark alleyway, but Rose couldn’t see a thing.

“Where?”

He flicked a button on his black wristwatch, which as Rose looked closer, she realized wasn’t actually a timepiece.

When she glanced up again there was now a large craft parked at the end of the street.

“Well I suppose I wouldn’t mind a bit of bubbly.”

Jack grinned,

“Wonderful.”

*

While Rose was being seduced by a captain of questionable ethics, the Doctor was learning about a horrible plague taking over London. It was definitely not something he’d ever read in the history books before, so he knew that whatever he and Rose had followed to earth was most likely the cause.

The young woman he’d met, Nancy, had told him about how a child was terrorizing her and her little group of orphans she protected. She’d not told him too many details, but had directed him to the hospital closest to the crash site, where her little brother had died.

When the Doctor arrived and found dozens of victims, all with the same symptoms and cause of death, he had suddenly realized he was rather glad Rose hadn’t come with him.

This was much too dangerous a place for her.

However, when the last doctor in the hospital transformed into a monster before his very eyes, and the patients suddenly began to wake up and come after him, he realized that he could probably use some help.

Their constant mantra of “Are you my mummy?” was starting to make his head hurt. It took a lot to give a time Lord a headache.

As luck would have it, he was running down a hallway, hoping to place some distance between him and the gas masked zombies, when he suddenly spotted a familiar mane of blonde hair.

Rose was at the end of the hallway, and waving at him.

Didn’t the human know what was going on?

Of course she didn’t.

“Rose? What are you doing here? More importantly, _how_ did you get here, and did I mention _run_?” Rose explained that they’d tracked him down with time agent technology, and the Doctor had already taken a hold of her hand and begun to pull her away down another corridor before he’d noticed she wasn’t alone.

“Who’s your friend?”

The dark haired man gave a charming smile and would have attempted to introduce himself, but the Doctor and Rose were already halfway down the hallway from him.

He started after them.

“Captain, Jack Harkness. Fellow time traveler or rather Time Agent.”

Rose beamed at the Doctor,

“He’s got some information about the capsule we were after. Says he thinks he knows where it’s from.”

The Doctor stopped short, and they all skidded to a halt.

“Is that a fact sir? What can you tell me about the vessel?”

“Just Captain please. All I know is that from the readings I took, it’s some kind of warship, and the only thing left to find out is if there are any survivors.”

The Doctor shook his head,

“I’m afraid that’s very unlikely. But whatever happened when the ship crashed, it’s about to change the course of human history.”

Jack looked a bit stunned,

“What do you mean?”

“Haven’t you wondered why we’re running?”

Jack looked behind them to see the mass of zombies moving ever closer, and then he noticed they’d reached a dead end.

“Why are they saying that?”

The Doctor shrugged,

“Haven’t figured that out yet. It could just be a typical human reaction to losing your mind.”

Jack gave Rose a glance that asked the question “Who is this guy?”

But she ignored him.

“What do we do?” She asked, hoping she didn’t sound too hysterical.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and attempted to unlock the door closest to them,

“Working on it Rose. But it seems the lock is surrounded by too much wood. This is useless against wood.”

He tapped the screwdriver, and the red light at the end flickered.

Jack coughed slightly, and held out a silver gun shaped device.

“A screwdriver… really? Here, let me. Sonic blaster with unlocking capabilities.”

Rose glanced at the Doctor as they watched him shoot the lock, creating a square hole, and thus allowing them to slip inside.

Jack shot at the door again and restored the lock.

They were facing a hallway full of zombies, just from a different ward.

“Oh brilliant.” Jack muttered, and Rose fought back a scream,

“Doctor!”

“Are you my mummy?” the zombies repeated over and over, while the Doctor shook his head, trying to clear his mind, thinking back to everything Nancy had said.

If that young child was the first, maybe he’d influenced them all?

He cleared his throat, and prayed for the best.

He took a step towards them, and arranged his face into a stern expression.

“Go to your room! I’m very, very ah, cross with you. Now go on. Off you go.”

Rose eyed him as if he’d gone mad, and perhaps he had, but to the trio’s astonishment, the zombie hoard stopped, and slowly turned away, shuffling off, presumably back to their wards.

“I can’t believe that worked.” Jack muttered, and Rose scoffed.

“I’m glad it did. Those would have been frightful last words.”

The Doctor added, and they looked at him, no words coming to mind.

*

Unfortunately the Doctor hadn’t considered how close they were getting to the original child’s room. They stumbled upon it, and quickly realized they’d sent it back to its room, and that’s where they were.

Jack teleported out first, and Rose and the Doctor were left behind.

“What are you doing?”

Rose kicked off with her toe, and leaned back in the old wheelchair, sending herself spinning about as she peered across the dimly lit room at the Doctor, who appeared to be aiming his sonic at the solid walls.

He coughed delicately, and cleared his throat, before turning to look at her with those soft blue eyes,

“I’m attempting to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete.”

Rose grinned, her tongue slipping between her teeth as she watched him turn back to the wall, sonic outstretched and buzzing over the surface.

“What does that mean?”

The Doctor sighed, before realizing how rude he’d been to use Time-Lord speak in front of Rose again.

“It just means I’ll be getting us out of here before your friend.”

The Doctor smiled wryly to himself, glad that his lovely companion couldn’t presently see him. The burning ache in his chest was not jealously. It was _not_.

Rose rolled her eyes at his back, and shrugged,

“I think Captain Jack is a pretty trustworthy guy. He’ll get us out. No problem.”

The Doctor’s composure wavered.

“Well just the same, I prefer to always have a secondary option.”

The music that Jack had started up to keep the child from finding them still played, and Rose hummed along with Moonlight Serenade, before jumping up from the wheelchair, and walking over to flip up the volume.

The Doctor gave no indication that he’d noticed, but Rose could have sworn she saw his shoulders jerk.

“Come on. Can’t you have a little faith? The world doesn’t end because the Doctor dances.”

He looked around at her, and tried to plead with her, beg her with his eyes,

“Rose…I’m trying to resonate concrete.”

She said nothing, but beckoned him with her hands.

He was lost to her will.

Once he slipped his sonic screwdriver back into his coat pocket, he obliged her, and took her hands gently in his own.

“You’ll find your feet at the end of your legs…you may care to use them.”

Another grin slipped over her lips, and the Doctor couldn’t keep his eyes off them for that moment.

Then he felt her foot under his, and he apologized profusely, but she waved him off.

“Not to worry. I guess you’re a bit out of practice. Not like the Captain at all.”

She winked at him, and though he knew she was just teasing, a flare of heat shot up his spine at the mention of the man.

“I can’t believe you’re calling him Captain. If he really was one once, he’s been defrocked by now, surely.”

Rose leaned in close, and he nearly went cross eyed trying to focus on her lips,

“Shame I missed that.”

His hands tightened over hers involuntarily, and she didn’t protest.

She did adjust his grip, by placing one of her hands on his shoulder, where the soft green velvet of his jacket was quite comfy under her grip, and she then guided his free hand to her waist.

He’d not wanted to assume or impose, but he couldn’t say he disliked holding her like this. It was part of the reason he’d tried to avoid dancing with her.

When Rose looked up from his feet, she saw the hospital was gone. The Doctor couldn’t have heard her sigh of disappointment, for his own was far more exaggerated, for the Captain’s sake.

Jack was staring at them from across the ship, in the captain’s seat.

“You two are so sweet. Most people notice when they’ve been transported.”

The Doctor stiffened, and immediately dropped Rose’s hand, and stepped back from her. The spot where his hand had been on her lower back felt cold almost instantly.

Rose might have been cross with Jack if he’d not been looking at her so knowingly.

The Doctor began to interrogate him, and Rose rolled her eyes. Back to business it was.

Shame about that.

The Doctor _could_ dance.

*

Thanks to Jack, they had all made it out of the hospital and onto his ship, where they learned the truth.

Jack wasn’t just a time agent, he was a con man. He’d been trying to lure them into a scheme to sell them the crashed ship, but since the Doctor suspected it had caused the entire affair, he was not very pleased with Jack.

Not just for lying to him, but also for the fact the deaths of all those people fell on Jack’s shoulders, yet he refused to admit to it. He kept trying to excuse himself from the blame, and eventually Rose had to come between them and declare a cease fire.

They’d go to the crash site, get to the bottom of things, and then they could fight it out.

The Doctor had challenged Jack to a duel, only halfheartedly, but after Rose’s speech, he started to plan it out.

He was still slightly jealous of how much attention the con man had been showing Rose, and even more so, the fact she seemed to enjoy it.

Perhaps it was his fault, for not being more open with his affection for her. But he’d nearly told her that moment in Downing street.

He’d just been unable to formulate the right words.

*

They’d done it. Saved the world again. Rose stood at the Doctor’s side, beaming away at the scene before them. All the zombies returned to their human selves, and a mother and child finally reunited. The only person missing was Jack. He’d bravely taken care of the impending bomb and then left them with an almost tearful goodbye.

Rose stepped away from the Doctor, and stared up into the night sky,

“Isn’t there anything we could do? Jack was a big help to us, he helped me find you, and thus saved your life. At least a little.”

When the Doctor grimaced at her, she nudged his shoulder,

“Please?”

The Doctor could hardly object to her wide eyes and fluttering lashes.

Well, he could, but why would he bother?

Once the TARDIS was back in the vortex, the Doctor scanned for Jack’s ship, and landed them right inside, just behind the captain’s seat.

Rose flicked a switch on the console, and the record player started, playing a familiar tune. She and Jack had danced around his ship after a couple glasses of Champagne and she’d been delighted to discover the Doctor had the same record.

“Hmmm, won’t you come dance with me Jack?”

She called out to him, and he spun around in his chair, nearly spilling his drink. He gaped in astonishment at the time and space ship and walked in and around the library before noticing Rose standing and tapping her feet to the music.

“I’d be honored.”

The Doctor looked up at them from the console and refrained from rolling his eyes,

“Shut the door would you? Your ship is about to blow up, might cause a bit of a draft there Captain.”

Jack gulped, and nodded, moving to obey.

Disaster averted, suddenly Jack was filled with energy. He shuffled over to Rose, and offered his hand, which she took with a smile,

“Don’t mind if I do.”

Jack pulled her into his arms and twirled them around the console room for a few minutes, before he noticed the Doctor looking longingly in their direction.

“Would you like to cut in Doctor?”

Rose asked innocently, and Jack laughed,

“But who would he rather dance with? Plot twist… it might not be you.”

Rose giggled and turned to look at the Doctor, who shook his head, stepping right between her and Jack.

“Don’t think I forgot about our duel Captain. Yes, I think I will cut in. Rose, I think you’ll be impressed by my moves, no matter what your friend has told you," He glanced pointedly at Jack, "Doctors do dance.”

Pulling her flush to his chest, he stepped in careful controlled rhythm to the music, and Rose could swear she heard her heart pounding, it was going so fast. She’d never been this close to the Doctor for so long. Usually they hugged, and separated just as quickly.

The way he was looking at her, it was starting to make her knees wobble. It made her think of the kiss.

He stopped, just as the song slowed down, and gently dipped her backwards, arranging his legs around her, to ensure they wouldn’t fall.

He lifted her back up and she giggled as the blood rushed back to her head.

“You are a wonderful dancer Doctor, I can’t believe I ever doubted you.”

“Did you now?”

Rose nodded, a blush coloring her cheeks, and he squeezed the hand that held hers slightly,

“I hope I can ensure your doubts are put to rest for good.”

Jack coughed behind them, from where he sat in the library, watching like a hawk.

The Doctor sighed,

“Can we help you Captain?”

Jack laughed,

“Nope. I was just going to ask where I could go, to give you two sometime alone.”

Rose giggled,

“No need Jack. I’m ready for our second dance, if you are.”

The next song that started up was a lively one, and together, Rose and Jack cut a spinning and twisting path around the library.

The Doctor watched them for a bit, but then turned his attention back to the console. He wasn’t about to forget the memory of how Rose had felt in his arms, not for the next hundred years at least.

The Doctor could dance indeed.

*

The Doctor awoke in brightly lit room, white walls on all sides, and he frowned in confusion. Last he remembered was piloting the TARDIS into the vortex, and then suddenly the console room had been starting to fade away and Rose had been yelling at him, and Jack, well, he didn’t remember what Jack had been doing.

Now he was where?

“Hello? Is anyone out there?”

Before he could discover anything further, one of the walls slide aside, and he walked out into a colorfully furnished room. He’d have joked to Rose that it reminded him of his fifth incarnation’s TARDIS design, but he couldn’t see her.

He felt panic grip him, and was about to pull out his sonic and start trying to find another door, but he heard three voices yell,

“Hello!”

He jumped about a foot in the air, and spun around to see three strangers watching him. The closest one, a short blond who reminded him faintly of Rose gave him a wide smile, while the other two looked almost suspicious of him.

The bloke gave him a look over and snorted,

“You’re lucky. You just got here so you won’t be eligible for vacating.”

The Doctor squinted at the man,

“What?”

*

Rose woke up on the cold ground in a darkened room, and all she could hear were faint strains of an echoingly familiar soundtrack.

When she opened her eyes and found a man standing over her, she fought back a scream.

“Where’s the Doctor? Where am I? What’s going on?”

The man shushed her, and held out a hand, helping her to her feet.

“You’re on the show now. Don’t ask questions. You’ll be answering them soon enough.”

Rose walked slowly, as if in a dream, which she still wasn’t convinced she wasn’t, and realized what the room looked like, and why she knew the music.

She moved to stand behind a podium with her name on the front and when the man who’d spoken to her said,

“Don’t do anything stupid. You don’t want to upset the Android.”

She thought he meant android. Like a normal ho-hum robot.

If this was the show she thought it was, he’d not said that.

Her mind went into overdrive as the robot turned to greet them, and she fervently hoped the Doctor was on his way.

“Welcome to the Weakest Link.”

Rose gulped, and thought to herself, ‘Not android, _Anne Droid_!’

*

Jack, for his part, wasn’t having the worst time, although he was certainly puzzled how he’d ended up outside the TARDIS.

But when the two lady robots pulled out weapons, and started talking about taking off his head, it was time to get the heck out of dodge.

“Sorry girls, but I like my face, angles and all.”

He decimated them both with his hidden weapon, and quickly pulled back on the outfit dubbed as ‘sexy modern pirate.’

It fit perfectly.

Now he just had to find the Doctor and Rose, and figure out just what the hell was going on.

*

Once the Doctor had figured out how to escape the horrible game show he was trapped in, he knew he couldn’t leave Lynda-with-a-y behind.

“Would you like to come with me? Help me find my friends?”

She looked slightly as if she was about to say no, but then he held out his hand, and she took it with a slow smile.

“Okay! Let’s get out of here.”

The door on the other side of the disintegration chamber let to a hallway, which had many other doors along the corridor.

The Doctor looked stricken,

“Hang on a moment, I’ve been here before. This is satellite Five, isn’t it?”

He turned to Lynda, who confirmed his guess with a nod.

“Yup. Except they’ve called it the game station for the last 99 years or so.”

The Doctor frowned,

“But this is wrong. I fixed things. This should be the height of civilization. But you’ve all got mad television programs where people die off in the dozens?”

Lynda avoided his gaze,

“More like thousands I’d say. There are a hundred floors of games, and each floor has multiple rooms of whatever game is on that floor. This one is all Big Brother House, then a couple floors down there’s, gosh I forget.”

The Doctor shook his head,

“It doesn’t matter. This is all my fault. I’ve done this. I threw earth into a hundred years of darkness and death. I’ve got to find my friends and try to fix this. For good. Where’s the control room?”

Lynda looked dreamy,

“That’ll be the top floor, floor 500.”

The Doctor sighed,

“Of course.”

*

Barely a moment after the Doctor and Jack had stepped into the game room that Rose had been found in, she saw them.

More importantly, she saw the Doctor.

He began to run towards her, and then he saw the look of terror on her face,

“Look out!”

She stopped moving and turned around to see the Anne Droid opening her mouth, and she didn’t think. She simply ran, she ran to save the Doctor.

The laser fired and Rose was disintegrated only a few feet from the Doctor.

Nothing remained but a pile of dust, and the Doctor fell to the ground, seeing but still working on believing.

Jack had already fired at the droid, and as it exploded into metal shards, he yelled at the nearest game station employee,

“You killed her! Your freaking game killed her!”

The Doctor sifted his fingers through the dust, and tried to think of something to say, to attempt to comfort Jack. But the words wouldn’t come. For the first time in his life, _this_ life at least, he was speechless.

Rose Tyler was dead.

It was his fault. She’d jumped in front of that laser to protect him. How could she have done that without asking him?

She was his world. He’d told her, and meant it. But he’d never told her what he’d really been trying to say. Now he never could.

*

When they’d fought their way out of the holding cell and back up to floor 500, and Jack had pulled that stunt with the laser cannon, after seeing Lynda-with-a-y vanish and then come back, suddenly, the Doctor felt a glimmer of hope.

“Doctor? You know what this means! It means Rose might still be alive!”

The Doctor practically laughed with joy, and pulled the con man into his arms.

“This is incredible.”

Jack patted him on the back, before pulling away,

“I had no idea you felt that way Doc.”

The Doctor shoved Jack with a stern look,

“Don’t be like that. Until I see Rose with my own eyes, I won’t be ready for any jokes.”

He got his wish, but in the minutes that followed, he almost felt sorry for making it.

A hologram flickered to life above the television controls, and he heard a voice that chilled him to the bone. His oldest enemy had come to earth again.

“ _ **Doctor, you’ve changed your face again**_ **.** ”

He titled his head and tried to keep calm even as his hearts were beating against his ribs,

“So I have. Now tell me, what have you done with Rose Tyler?”

A moment passed, and the view screen showed his blond haired and perfectly alive companion, surrounded by Dalek soldiers. Mere seconds later and Rose had realized what she was seeing.

“Doctor!”

His entire body relaxed at the sight of her,

“Rose! Are you alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine. They’ve not hurt me.”

A voice broke into the happy reunion,

“ _ **Not yet. But if you do not surrender yourself, and your TARDIS, she will be**_ **EXTERMINATED!** ”

The Doctor frowned,

“No.”

The voice belonging to who he knew to be the Dalek emperor sounded shocked, as much as an emotionless creature could,

“ _ **What do you mean by this negative**_ **?”**

“I said ‘no.’”

“ _ **Explain yourself Doctor**_ **!** ”

“No means no. I’m not going to surrender. I’m going to stop you, whatever your plans for earth are, they’re finished. I’m going to save Rose Tyler, and defeat your entire army of stinking Daleks.”

“ _ **But you have no allies, no resources, and no defenses!**_ ”

The Doctor smiled,

“Precisely. But doesn’t that scare you to death?”

The screen flashed back to Rose, and she looked frightened still, but he hoped she would trust him.

“Rose?”

“Yes Doctor?”

“I’m coming to get you.”

He reached out and blasted the hologram with his sonic, effectively hanging up on the call.

Jack looked at him, bewildered and slightly worried,

“What is your plan?”

The Doctor shrugged,

“I don’t suppose you remember the extrapolator from our ‘friend’ Margaret do you? I think we can manipulate that into forming a shield around the TARDIS, and then we’re going to do just what I promised. Save Rose Tyler and get rid of the Emperor’s fleet before he causes any more trouble.”

Jack frowned,

“But Doctor, why are they here? I thought your people had defeated them?”

The Doctor shook his head,

“The Time Lords are still dealing with them. They’re a problem comparable to an infestation. If even one general escapes, they can raise a whole army again in a short period of time. They want my TARDIS to help them destroy my world, and my people. I know a full scale war isn’t far off, but if we can destroy the Emperor, cut the head off the snake, so to speak, we can stop that from ever happening.”

Jack gave a small smile,

“Whatever you say Doc. Let’s go get Rose!”

“Agreed.”

*

They’d managed to get Rose safely onto the TARDIS, and avoid any Dalek soldiers, but after the Emperor told them what he planned to do to earth, how he wanted to harvest the human race for the creation of more Daleks, the Doctor had heard enough.

“When did they get so desperate? They hate you. No offense of course. You’re all very loveable creatures, when you aren’t trying to kill each other.”

The Doctor rambled on, and Rose glanced at Jack,

“Sorry. I spose you remember he likes to insult us, and then compliments us as if it helps.”

The Doctor paused mid-rant and looked apologetic,

“Rose. You know what I mean.”

She rolled her eyes,

“Yeah I spose I do. So how are we gonna stop them? He was right. That main octopus thing. We haven’t got anything.”

The Doctor refrained from correcting her, as she was accurate in a strange way. The way Rose always was perceptive about things was simply another reason he cared for her so much.

‘No.’ he scolded himself. Not time to be thinking about that. Or was it? The future of the human race was at stake, if he couldn’t think of something.

Jack glanced at the Doctor, and he saw the instant he had an idea. It was all over his face.

“What about a Delta wave?” The Doctor turned to the station manager, and began asking a series of questions, mostly about the resources available.

Jack looked at Rose, who looked lost,

“What’s a delta wave?”

“It’s a massive electronic wave that wipes out anything in its range. It could destroy the entire Dalek army without risking a single life.”

Rose gulped,

“That sounds dangerous. How easy is it to make?”

She was mostly asking, if it could kill an army so easily, why didn’t the Daleks simply use it to kill the earth?

The Doctor shrugged,

“Takes only the right tools and the right brain. Luckily I’ve got both sides of my brain, plus I’m clever, and more than that actually, I’m brilliant.”

Rose set her hand on his arm, and he beamed at her,

“Modest aren’t ya?”

“I’m about to save the world Rose, please give me a little credit.”

Jack coughed, interrupting the stare between the two, and asked the important question,

“How long is this gonna take? The fleet is only what, thirty minutes away?”

He turned to the game station employee manning the control booth, who looked slightly worried,

“Less, they’ve accelerated.”

The Doctor stepped away from Rose, who he might have pulled into his arms if he hadn’t been so busy calculating figures.

“It’s alright, just means I’ve got to work a tiny bit faster. Rose, come help me with these relays.”

Jack stood, his arms folded,

“What am I supposed to do, stand here and look handsome?”

He almost sounded factious, but the Doctor knew better,

“No. You can take your big gun and go downstairs, hold off any Dalek troops that get decide to try and infiltrate the station. They still want my TARDIS.”

Jack frowned,

“Are you sending me on a suicide mission? I’ve seen how tough those things are.”

The Doctor shook his head,

“No. I would never do that. Take these two with you and remember, concentrate your fire on the eyestalks, and you’ll be fine.”

He gestured to Lynda and the other dark haired woman who reluctantly got up from the control table.

“Are you sure?”

The Doctor stood up from where he was leaning over a circuit board and took Jack’s hand,

“I am. We’ll be fine.”

Jack smiled, almost sadly,

“I wish I’d never met you doc, I was much better off as a coward.”

Jack pulled the Doctor into a tight hug then moved back to place a quick kiss on his mouth, ignoring the Doctor’s raised eyebrows and general surprise and gave his hand a final squeeze before walking over to Rose, who eagerly leapt into his arms.

“Be careful Jack.”

“I will. Remember Rose, you are worth fighting for. Now promise me, you’ll watch out for him. Okay?” he glanced at the Doctor, who was pointedly trying to avoid his eyes.

Jack placed a gentle kiss on Rose’s lips, shocking her, but she couldn’t say she didn’t like it. Now she’d kissed the Doctor twice, in a way.

The Doctor was seconds from splitting them apart, when Jack moved away, giving them both a mock salute.

“See you in hell.”

Rose had a strange desire to laugh,

“He’s cheery.”

The Doctor shrugged,

“I don’t think he believes I can do it.”

*

Approximately five minutes later, the fleet was almost in the atmosphere, and the Doctor knew the Delta wave was almost complete.

Rose coughed,

“Um.”

He looked over at her, where she was diligently attaching wires as he’d asked,

“Yes?”

Rose looked up at him, looking like a deer in the headlights,

“I was just thinking, couldn’t we go back a week or so, warn them about this?”

The Doctor shook his head sadly,

“No, because the instant the TARDIS landed we’d become part of events. Stuck in that timeline.”

Rose nodded, and fell silent again.

But the Doctor cleared his throat, continuing,

“There is something we could do. You could ask me, and we could leave. Go someplace with sand and palm trees, let history take its course.”

Rose smiled up at him,

“You wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t let you.”

The Doctor looked sad,

“But you could ask.”

“I know. I guess I’m just too good.”

A series of beeps and chirps sounded, and the Doctor practically jumped up,

“It’s started building.”

Rose followed him over to the control table, unsure what to look for on the screens, but trusting his judgment.

“How long will it take?”

His eager smile faded from his face; the longer he studied the screen. His head fell forward into his hands and Rose moved closer, her own hand reaching out, touching his and absentmindedly stroking his hair over his face. He looked defeated, and she couldn’t stand that.

As Rose was sensing the change in his demeanor, the Doctor was beginning to realize the truth. She couldn’t be here. He had to do something, to save her. After all she’d done for him, he couldn’t lose her again.

“So it’s bad. How bad is it?”

He lifted his head up from his hands, at the same time as she pulled back, and looked puzzled for a moment. Then the Doctor was beaming at her, and she wondered if she’d missed something.

“Rose Tyler, you’re a genius!”

He took her face between his hands and kissed her forehead, and she started grinning,

“Yeah?”

“If I use the TARDIS to cross my own timeline, yes! This will work.”

He ran with her to the TARDIS, and began walking around the console, flipping switches and turning knobs, before pausing on a lever,

“Hold that up, and wait here, I just need to power up the game station. We can do it, we can save the earth.”

Rose felt like laughing, and she followed his instructions, watching as he sprinted back out the front doors.

*

The Doctor stopped walking after he’d gotten a few feet away from the TARDIS, and reached out, using his sonic screwdriver to remotely start the engines.

He could hear Rose’s voice, faintly. She sounded confused, and then hurt, as she called out to him,

“Doctor! What’s happening? Can I take my hand off? It’s moving. Doctor!”

The TARDIS dematerialized, and he almost felt as if both his hearts had broken. The two things he loved most in the universe, gone.

Jack’s voice echoed through the room, and he realized he was paging him from the floor below.

“Hey Doc, can I speak to Rose real quick? I forgot to tell her something.”

The Doctor shook his head.

“No Jack, I’m afraid Rose is gone.”

Jack frowned,

“What are you talking about? Where’d she go?”

The Doctor said nothing.

Jack looked like a child who’d been told the truth about Father Christmas.

“You sent her away didn’t you?” he tried to keep the hurt out of his voice.

The Doctor nodded,

“Well then, she’s safe. Nothing to worry about. How much longer will the Delta Wave take?”

Before the Doctor could reply, there was a booming voice over the speakers,

“ ** _Tell him doctor. Tell him the truth._** _”_

“What is he talking about?” Jack looked worried, and the Doctor couldn’t find the words, but the Dalek Emperor gleefully explained,

_“_ **_There is every chance the delta wave is complete, but no possible way of refining it.”_ **

Jack looked horrified,

“Doc, there’s hundreds of people on this station, and on earth, millions!”

The Doctor nodded, and Jack could swear he saw tears in the alien’s eyes.

The Emperor’s voice was starting to sound fuzzy in the Doctor’s ears, and he squeezed his eyes shut, as if he could pretend it was all a horrible dream.

_“_ **_It will destroy everything in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek._ ** _”_

The Doctor finally stood up, the control for the wave extended and ready,

“I’ll do it. If it means stopping you.”

He heard a scream from the halls surrounding Jack, and he yelled,

“Gotta go Doc, they’re coming your way!”

The screen went blank, and static filled the air.

The Doctor sighed heavily, if Jack was gone, then he had nothing to wait for.

The Emperor might have laughed, if a Dalek could feel amusement,

_“_ **_Tell me doctor, what makes you any different from a Dalek?_ ** _”_

“It’s better to die as a human, than to live and become something like you.”

The Emperor gave one last taunt,

_“_ **_Hail the doctor, the great exterminator!”_ **

The Doctor gripped the control tightly,

“There’s other colonies out there, humans that have spread out among the stars, but there’s only one Dalek army on this side of the galaxy, and it’s about to be dust.”

The Emperor shook madly in his glass shell,

“ ** _Then prove yourself doctor, what are you? Coward, or killer?_** ”

The Doctor felt his entire body tense up, yet he couldn’t move his hands, and when he pictured Rose in his mind, home, and safe, he pushed harder. Then he thought of Jack, scared and surrounded by Daleks only a few floors below, and he let go.

“Coward. At least today.”

*

The Doctor saw the Daleks rolling around the room, closing in on where he stood, and he held up his sonic, prepared to try anything to destroy them, even though he knew it was suicide. Perhaps it was time. He’d lived quite a long time. Who would miss him?

He knew the answer to that question was much too complicated to be thinking of now, but he hoped kind, brave and sweet Rose would be among the few who would.

He tossed away his heavy velvet jacket, and shook his hair back, out of his eyes, watching as his oldest enemy prepared to do what they did best, _exterminate_ him.

Before he could think of something clever to say, his ears caught a familiar sound.

“No… it can’t be.”

But it was.

The TARDIS was materializing just a few feet behind him, and he turned his back on the Daleks, as he felt a strange presence in the time stream.

The front doors flew open, and a bright golden light shone out, almost blinding him.

It was as bright as the eye of harmony, but instead of feeling cold and empty as a black hole, it felt like fire brimming full of life.

The heart of the TARDIS.

The golden light shimmered for a moment, before becoming solid, and the Doctor realized it was Rose!

“Rose! What’s happened? What did you do?”

The joy and relief at seeing her was not enough to overpower the fear and horror at what had happened. He had been able to see her timelines before, he’d felt the moment she landed back home in London, and seen her interacting with her mother. But now? Her line was a golden thread woven throughout _all_ of time and space.

Rose’s voice was different, affected by emotion, and the strong power flowing through her being,

“I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me. She helped me find you. We want you safe, Doctor.”

“You looked into the Time Vortex? Rose, no, no one’s meant to do that.”

No one except a time lord, he didn’t say.

The Emperor, still watching and observing shrieked in anger,

“ _ **This is the abomination!**_ ”

It seemed the Doctor wasn’t the only one who noticed the change in Rose.

A Dalek soldier closest to them squeaked,

_“Exterminate!”_

The Dalek fired what should have been a killing shot, but Rose lifted her hand up, and reversed the laser back into the machine. The Doctor looked at her, shocked and yet glad she was had not been harmed.

She turned to look up at the wall of the room, and the Doctor noticed the company logo Lynda had been babbling about earlier, and he felt his stomach clench,

“I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words...” As they watched, the Doctor in stunned silence, and Rose in deadly calm, the letters fell off the sign and flew into space and vanished.

“...I scatter them, in time and space. As a message, to lead myself here.”

The Doctor felt a strange sort of pride welling up inside, but the growing concern for her safety overwhelmed him, and he spoke, begging her and the TARDIS, if she was listening,

“Rose please, you've got to stop this, you've got to stop this now! You've the entire vortex running through your head, you're going to die from that power!

“I had to come back, to keep you from being killed by this evil.”

She turned her gaze on the screen, and if the Doctor hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn the Emperor flinched,

“You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence, and I divide them.” With a hand, and only a thought, Rose dissolved the surrounding Daleks.

All that remained was a pile of dust on the floor.

The Doctor almost felt sorry for them, but not quite.

Rose lifted her other hand, and pointed to the Emperor, who, though he protested, soon vanished in a golden flash and the hologram screen winked out of existence.

The Doctor could feel the presence of the Dalek army go with it, and he turned to look at Rose,

“You’ve done it! They’re gone. Now please Rose, stop this. Just…let it go.”

Rose looked down at him, her gentle brown eyes shining through the golden haze,

“How can I let go of this? I bring life.”

Far off, in a distant hallway, Jack Harkness breathed again, and the Doctor felt as if he’d been punched in the head.

Timelines were being rewritten, and Jack’s had no visible end.

The Doctor took Rose’s hand, and could feel the burning she had to be experiencing,

“But this is wrong Rose. You can't control life and death!”

She laughed, and it would have been a sound to lift his spirits, but for the catch in her voice,

“But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night... but oh Doctor, why do they hurt?”

He saw tears begin to fall down her cheeks, and he stood up, stepping closer to her, shaking his head sadly,

“Oh Rose, my sweet girl, this power's going kill you.”

Rose tried to smile at him,

“I can see everything... all that is... all that was... all that ever could be.”

The unspoken vision was of him and her traveling on and on, all throughout time and space, some timelines where they were separated by two universes, others where she died in his arms, or he in hers.

She didn’t know what to do.

The Doctor brushed his hand over her cheek, wiping away her hot tears,

“But that's what _I_ see. All the time. Doesn’t it just drive you mad?”

She nodded, words failing her for once. Her eyes fell closed, and the golden glow seemed to dim,

“Please Doctor, my head...” her voice broke, and she shook with a sob, “...is killing me.”

The Doctor cupped her face in his hands, and steeled himself; for he knew what he had to do.

“Rose, I hate to say it, but I think you need a Doctor.”

He closed the final distance between them, and captured her lips in a gentle kiss, their third in many ways, and last, feeling her lips part under his mouth, and he carefully pulled the time vortex from her body into his own.

The instant he saw her eyes return to normal, he pulled away. He faintly heard her whisper something, perhaps

“Thank you,” or if he dared to dream, “I love you.”

Then she collapsed into his arms.

*

The Doctor breathed the vortex back into the TARDIS, watching the front doors snap shut. It would need a few moments to recalibrate, before it would be ready for flight. He set Rose down gently, careful to cradle her head. He brushed a strand of golden blond hair from her face, and felt her heartbeat returning to normal.

He still could see her timeline, bright and shining, stretching out a finite amount of time, but precisely how much, he couldn’t pin down.

Jack, however, was a bigger problem altogether. In addition to the time vortex wreaking havoc on his body, Jack’s lifeline was making him feel rather nauseous. His line _never_ ended. It crossed with Rose’s a few times in the future, and more curiously, in the past, but had no stopping point.

Jack had become a fixed object in time, and it felt so _wrong._

The Doctor knew he needed to get out of there and away from him as quickly as possible. He reluctantly left Rose’s side to check on the TARDIS. When he reached the console room, he was shocked to see a bright red and gold light flashing on the view screen. That was the signal for an incoming message from Gallifrey.

“What could it mean?” the Doctor puzzled, before pressing the accept button, and as his eyes scanned over his circular language, he felt his blood turn cold.

Gallifrey was under attack.

He looked back to the front doors, to where Rose lay unconscious, and further, to where Jack would be waking up, and coming to question them both.

A spasm of pain wracked his body, and he looked in horror to find his hands glowing. It was starting. The Time Vortex had not been in his body long enough to do any lasting damage, but it was triggering his body's regeneration.

He didn’t have time to run any tests on Rose, to find out what had happened to her, he needed to respond to Gallifrey’s distress call.

“I’m so sorry Rose.”

He whispered, before starting up the time rotor, and the engines began to hum.

“It’s time to go home.” He spoke to the TARDIS, not sure why it sounded so much like an excuse to his ears. It was the truth.

Jack had just rounded the hallway when he heard the TARDIS taking off. He felt his insides clench, the Doctor was leaving? Leaving him behind?

Why would he do that?”

He stopped short, watching the TARDIS dematerialize, and he realized he wasn’t alone. The crumpled body of Rose Tyler lay in front of where the TARDIS had just vanished from.

“Oh my god.”

He whispered, slowly walking towards her prone form.

He fell to his knees at her side, his hand brushing across her forehead, despair beginning to cloud his mind.

But then he touched her temple, and felt a pulse!

She wasn’t dead!

“Rose, love, can you hear me? It’s Jack. Can you move? Are you hurt?”

Rose shifted underneath his hand, and he pulled it back, before returning it to her face when her eyes fluttered open.

“Jack?”

“Yep. It’s me. Are you okay?”

Jack watched as her brow wrinkled, and when she tried to sit up, he put a hand behind her back,

“Slowly now.”

“It’s like, there was this singing.”

Jack frowned,

“What?”

“I heard singing inside my head. Then the Doctor kissed me, and I blacked out.”

Jack would have made a joke, but he was more concerned about her health.

“What happened to the Daleks?”

Rose blinked a couple times, and shrugged,

“No idea. One minute, I was home. Then I was in the TARDIS, and then I’m back here. Where’s the Doctor? He’ll know what happened.”

She started to twist around and Jack put his arm around her,

“Rose, he’s gone.”

“No he can’t be.”

“He left. I saw him. I thought you were dead. I thought I was dead. I remember getting shot by a Dalek, and then I woke up, and there was nothing but a pile of ash where three Daleks had been.”

Rose’s eyes went wide,

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, something happened, and the Doctor’s gone.”

Her bottom lip trembled,

“But he wouldn’t do that. He sent me home to keep me safe, then I came back, and he just left?”

Jack shrugged,

“I don’t understand either. But we really need to get out of here. I don’t want to have to explain all those dead bodies downstairs, or outside. I know where my vortex manipulator is, will you come with me?”

Rose swallowed thickly, looked around, and nodded.

“Okay. But I still think he wouldn’t do that.”

Jack helped her to her feet, and as they walked, they supported each other, as he still felt shaky and she was hardly in better shape.

*

With the help of Jack’s vortex cuff, they’d managed to jump back to London, two years after Rose had been there last.

Jackie was just relieved to have her home in one piece, and Rose wasn’t about to protest it either. It was a simple matter to ask if Jack could stay with them, after all, he was a looker. Jackie had barely gotten a word in edgewise as he charmed her, and offered to cook dinner for them all.

It was only when Rose had climbed into bed, and had a spare moment to herself that she realized how much pain she was in. Nothing hurt her physically, but the simple fact the Doctor had left her and Jack behind, while he went off gods knew where, was just devastating.

She cried herself to sleep that night, and Jack, who was only a room over, pretended not to hear her. He knew she needed space, and he certainly didn’t want it to seem like he was trying to take the Doctor’s place by comforting her. He’d wait until she wanted him to do anything.

That night, Rose dreamt of the singing.

*

_A tall woman with dark curls piled up on her head watched Rose as she moved around the console room. She might have been crying, but at the sight of the woman she stopped._

_“Who are you?”_

_The woman smiled,_

_“I am the TARDIS. I know you. You’re the human child my thief has fallen in love with.”_

_Rose gaped at the woman, who claimed to be the space and time ship of the Doctor,_

_“What?”_

_“You heard me child. Or should I call you Bad Wolf?”_

_The words echoed around Rose’s head, and she shook it, as if to clear her mind,_

_“What are you talking about? What’s Bad Wolf?”_

_“You. It’s always been you. With a little help from me, of course. I know what you want to do. You want to save him. You love him too, don’t you?”_

_Rose would have blushed, but she was still in a bit of shock,_

_“Er, yes. I suppose I do.”_

_The woman waved a hand._

_“Suppose nothing my dear. You love him, and he loves you. He sent you away from him, with me, just to save you. That’s something he’s never done for anyone. You know why he has two hearts I suppose? One for me, and one for the woman who will stand by his side through anything. I’d venture a guess, that would be you. At least, someday.”_

_Rose shook her head,_

_“Okay, so even if that were true, how can I save him? He’s trapped me here, and he’s hundreds of years in the future, and you won’t fly!”_

_The woman shrugged,_

_“I had to speak with you first. I don’t let just_ anyone _fly with me. But I can see the love you have for him, you practically glow with it. You will glow with it, with my help. Are you ready?”_

_Rose’s eyes widened,_

_“Ready for what?”_

_“To save the Doctor of course.”_

_Rose stepped closer to the woman,_

_“Yes. With all my heart, I want to go back.”_

_The woman reached out, and took Rose’s hand, and she could feel a strange sensation, a warmth of an open flame, but gentler,_

_“Time to fly.”_

*

Rose woke with a start, and she realized she was sweaty and shaking. What had she just seen? It was as if she’d been talking to the TARDIS, but in human form?

She knew it was quite strange how she’d suddenly been able to get the TARDIS to fly, after hours of sitting in the console room, sobbing and begging for it to work.

She remembered trying to open the console, hoping that she could speak to it more easily, and then, after that, nothing.

Then she remembered what Jack had said. He thought he’d _died?_

But he seemed fine, better than fine. He was his usual self, but also had a spring in his step.

Why was that?

*

Three years passed for Rose and Jack.

It was the Monday before New Year’s Eve, and they were both comfortably walking home, finished with the weekly grocery trip when they heard it.

That familiar sound that roused so many emotions.

Hope, fear, joy, and for Rose, love.

They’d both missed the Doctor, but over time, the ache had gotten less painful, and it flared up now as if it had never gotten better.

They ran.

The TARDIS was materializing across the street from the apartment complex, and Jack got there first, fumbling at the front door with his key, before he realized the lock was different.

“Rose? Come here.”

She was barely a foot behind him, and she stopped short when she noticed he’d not gone inside yet.

“What’s wrong?”

“My key won’t work. I don’t think yours will either.”

Rose frowned,

“But why-?”

The front doors opened in, and they both took a couple steps back. A tall man, with closed cropped dark hair stepped out, and looked at them, his face a blank slate.

“Jack Harkness, and Rose Tyler. You look exactly the same.”

The northern accent seemed to drift into Rose’s ears and made her heart skip a beat.

“Who are you? And where’s the Doctor?”

Jack may have sounded angry, but he looked furious.

The man nodded,

“Ah, yes well, I might have forgotten to tell you. Rose,” he turned to her, and she felt herself begin to shiver, suddenly she had a horrible feeling she wouldn’t like what this stranger, who knew her name, was about to tell her.

“It’s me. I changed though. When I absorbed the time vortex, it affected me. All the way down to the smallest cell. I didn’t die, but I had to change. I’m still the Doctor. I’ve been gone a while, and for that I’m sorry. But I had to take care of something, something that couldn’t wait.”

He looked away from her, and she saw pain in his eyes. They were the only thing that made her believe him. They were that same bright brilliant blue, except now they hid nothing.

Rose felt her eyes sting with unshed tears, and she tried to keep her voice steady, and her tone soft, but she found herself almost on the verge of shouting,

“But I didn’t even get to say goodbye! I needed to tell him something, and now you’ve taken him from me. I’ve been waiting three years to see him again, and now I never will...”

The words were full of anger, but the Doctor knew she wasn’t as upset at him as she was at herself.

He fixed her with a calm stare, and nodded,

“You’re right Rose, you both are. I should have told you what could happen. I didn’t. I’m sorry. But you didn’t have to say goodbye, not really.”

His eyes pleaded with her, they begged her forgiveness. They looked as if they’d seen entire worlds fall.

Rose felt all the fight drain out of her,

“What was it? What happened?”

Jack remained silent, for he knew if he spoke; it would only lead to punches being thrown. He was _not_ okay with all of this, but he was willing to listen.

Rose took a tentative step closer to the man with her Doctor’s eyes, although he looked completely different. His new face was all angles and planes. He had a prominent nose, and rather large ears, but she didn’t mind them. His hair was quite short; and it only made her miss the long curls for a moment. Gone was the Victorian clothing, and in its place were blue jeans, a blood red sweater underneath a worn black leather jacket.

He didn’t stand out so much now. Rose wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not.

“It’s my planet Rose. It’s gone. I got a call, asking me to return, and it was in the middle of a war. With the Daleks. They had sent a small army to earth just to distract me. To try and keep me from knowing the truth. I returned and found a battle raging, and I was the only one who could do anything. I had to end it. I killed them all. The council voted, and I obeyed them. Now everyone is dead. I’m the last of the Time Lords. I barely made it out alive. The shockwave probably destroyed anything within a galaxy nearby.”

Rose felt as if the ground had fallen out from under her. This man, or rather alien, with this new face looked so broken; she wasn’t sure how he was still standing. If it had been her, she’d be crumpled in a ball, home in bed. She took the last step towards him and put her arms around his neck, holding him close.

She felt his arms come up around her, and his body shook with silent sobs.

“Oh Doctor. It’s alright. You’re here now, you’re okay.”

Her hand came up to stroke the back of his head, and he buried his face in the crook of her neck.

Jack was starting to feel like an intruder, and wondering if he should say something, when he saw Rose throw out a hand towards him, beckoning him in.

After a few moments, the Doctor extracted himself from the two humans, and looked warily at Jack. He sensed a lot of underlying hostility, and the same sick feeling he’d had on the game station was rapidly returning, the longer he remained in his presence.

“I don’t suppose you’ll apologize for leaving us behind will you?”

Jack snarked, and Rose would have slapped him, if she hadn’t secretly been thinking along the same lines.

“If it’ll make you feel better to hit me, I’d say do it. But the thing is, I knew you still had that blasted thing.”

The Doctor glared pointedly at Jack’s vortex cuff, which to anyone else simply resembled a bulky watch.

Rose tried to diffuse the tension,

“Well, I for one am glad for your vote of confidence Doctor.”

The Doctor threw her a wink, before drawing out a small silver device, with a glowing blue tip.

At both of their questioning glances, he grinned,

“New sonic screwdriver. The old one got a bit, well, damaged beyond repair.”

A flash of the former sadness appeared on his face before disappearing. He held the screwdriver over Jack’s wrist, and they all heard the faint pulse as the sonic energy shut down the travel device.

“No need for any more of that.”

Jack would have been angry, or even just annoyed, but he was still brimming with questions.

“Why won’t our keys work?”

Rose watched the Doctor as he coughed, and shrugged, looking extremely uncomfortable,

“I had to change the security protocols, and the TARDIS got a bit of a remodel after the damage she sustained…would you like to see?”

He smiled slightly, and gave Rose a pleading look, and she nodded slowly,

“Okay.”

Jack shrugged, and held out his old key,

“I suppose. You better take this, it’s not any use to me anymore.”

The Doctor tried not to look hurt, but he accepted the key without comment, before stepping inside the TARDIS, and waving Jack and Rose inside.

*

Rose felt rather disappointed that the library was nowhere to be seen, and in fact, the whole console room seemed to have gotten smaller.

“Don’t tell me the library got destroyed…”

The Doctor shook his head,

“Nah, she just moved it. Now it’s got its own room. Much less cramped now. And there’s a proper kitchen three doors down the hall.”

He gave the console a pat, and strolled around it, pointing down the proper hallways.

Rose looked down and noticed they were walking on a metal grating, and she could see hundreds of wires and cords leading to the console. It was as if they were in the heart of the TARDIS, and the Doctor was gladly giving them a tour. Suddenly she didn’t feel so upset.

This was a new Doctor, and a new TARDIS. New could be good. At least he remembered them, for she recalled the story that her Doctor had told her about his visit to America, about waking up in a hospital, not knowing who he was, or where he was. What he’d left out was that it had been after he’d _changed,_ so it made a strange sort of sense.

“I love it.” She said finally, and the Doctor looked over at her, a slow grin taking over his face. It made him look very handsome, she decided.

Jack still looked unimpressed.

“I don’t suppose you have a squash court around here do you?”

The Doctor chuckled, a rich deep sound that Rose instantly enjoyed.

“Yeah actually I do. In fact, I have about a dozen. Different styles according to the various years it was improved on.”

They all knew Jack had been merely teasing, but Rose could almost feel herself relaxing a bit.

“So Doctor, where do you plan to take us first? We’ve grown awfully sedentary sitting around waiting on you for so long.”

Jack shot Rose a warning look, and though he’d only just begun to warm to the idea of their Doctor being back, he saw she was only joking.

The Doctor shrugged,

“Maybe we could go to Woman Wept? I could use a good cup of hot chocolate.”

Rose looked confused,

“Er, Doctor, we could get a great cup of cocoa right here on planet earth, mum could make it for us.”

Jack looked as if he was about to laugh, and the Doctor flinched,

“No thanks. I don’t think I want to meet up with your mum just yet. I doubt she’ll be very happy to see me.”

Rose glanced at Jack, and they both nodded.

“Good plan. So what’s Woman Wept?”

The Doctor smiled,

“It’s a planet with frozen waves as high as your apartment building. Frozen in an instant by a …er… shockwave from the time war.”

Rose gulped, and stepped over to place her hand on the Doctor’s arm,

“Are you sure you’d want to go there?”

His blue eyes captured hers and she suddenly couldn’t look away,

“It’s beautiful Rose, I’d love for you to see it. Please?”

She squeezed his arm gently,

“Of course we can go. Alright Jack?”

They both turned to look at the handsome former con man, who suddenly looked extremely uncomfortable.

“I think I’ll sit this one out kids. Besides, better that I be the one to tell Jackie about you coming back and stealing Rose off again anyway. Maybe you can explain to Rose why I can’t die, and then give me a call.”

Jack was gone out the doors of the TARDIS before Rose or the Doctor could stop him, and he looked at her questioningly,

“What did he mean?”

Rose sighed, and let go of him, walking away from him around the console,

“Somehow, I think you know very well. At least better than what we’ve tried to put together. Jack and I were in a car accident a couple months ago, and the car hit us on the driver’s side. A direct hit to him. The airbag didn’t do any good. The ambulance called it. He _died_. Then, maybe a minute later he was sitting up and flirting with the emergency techs. They blamed it on faulty equipment, but we both knew better. He said he died on the game station, and then _something_ brought him back to life. I think it was me.”

The Doctor closed his eyes, and his head fell into his hands.

“Oh Rose. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I couldn’t stay and tell you. You looked into the heart of the TARDIS, came back to the game station, and saved us both from the Daleks. You brought Jack back before I could stop you, and now he’s a fixed point. He can’t die. He may never die. I had to leave because, well, even if I hadn’t gotten the distress signal ---”

 His voice caught, before he continued, “I wouldn’t have been able to stay around him long. He makes me feel sick. He’s wrong. He shouldn’t exist.”

Rose looked stunned,

“What about me? Did anything happen to me?”

The Doctor shrugged,

“I’m not sure. I couldn’t run any tests then.” He swallowed, “But if you’d let me, I could now.”

Rose nodded slowly, and when he raised his hands to her temples, she balked,

“What are you doing?”

The Doctor looked at her steadily,

“It won’t hurt. I’m just going to look inside your mind, see what effects the vortex may have had on you, if any. Is that alright?”

Rose heard the words, and they stirred a memory, of the long haired Doctor asking her if him being an alien was a problem.

“Okay.” She whispered, and she felt his hands make contact with her forehead. Her eyes slipped shut of their own accord.

Whatever he was doing, though she knew he wasn’t speaking, she could swear she heard him saying her name, fervently, almost like a prayer.

His hands let go of her, and her eyes snapped open,

“What was that?”

The Doctor smiled at her,

“That was me. I was just thinking how beautiful you look.”

Rose felt her eyes sting,

“Really? That’s what that was?”

He shrugged,

“And also a bit of gentle probing. You’re perfectly alright. The vortex did no lasting damage. However, you’ve got a bit of an anomaly to your cellular structure. The fact you could hear me, hear inside my mind, that’s a big indicator.”

Rose gulped,

“Of?”

“You’re different. Not fully human anymore. You’re not like Jack. You aren’t a fixed point. You’re more like a time lord. But not really. You’re something of a cross between human and time lord. Thank to the TARDIS. You won’t regenerate, but it’s possible what I can see of your timeline means you’ll live much longer than… well, I guess we’ll see. You also have some sort of physic presence; I can sense traces of the vortex in your thoughts. Nothing dangerous. It could be developed into something more, if you wanted.”

Rose blinked, trying to make sense of what he was saying.

“I can read minds?”

“No, not quite. But you can be receptive to thoughts, by touch. That’s why,” he reached up and stroked her temples again, and she felt strange words again not in English this time, trickling from his head like raindrops over leaves.

“You heard that?”

Rose nodded, still treasuring the feeling.

“That was your name, in my language.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Like you.”

Rose blushed, and looked away from him, but his hand lifted her chin back up, and she met his gaze head on,

“I mean it. I never got the chance to tell you Rose, my sweet girl. I love you.”

Rose blinked, and she began to fervently pray this wasn’t a dream, and she wasn’t going to wake up to misery and uncertainty.

“It’s very real.”

The Doctor spoke, breaking through the fog of worry, and she wondered if he’d read her mind.

“Not exactly. You’re projecting everything with your face. It’s very easy to read. Your mind, not quite so much.”

Rose laughed,

“Doctor, what am I going to do? I’ve got no idea.”

“Come with me?” Any fears the Doctor might have had, whether a momentary thought or a long simmering concern about not being able to spend as much time as he could with Rose were assuaged. He couldn’t see how long she’d live, considering all the possible futures, and twists in her line, but he could see several where she saw hundreds of years, with no decay, no loss of life. The potential made him dare to have hope, even after the horrors he’d seen within the last few years of his regeneration.

That was something he’d confide in her later. How he’d experienced almost an entire century alone, his days spent mostly hiding in the TARDIS, hating what he’d done, and the lives he’d had to sacrifice.

But now was not that moment.

Now, he was being shown what his life could be like, if she came with him, again. If she could trust him, and dare he hope? Love him as he loved her.

Rose looked around the TARDIS, and shrugged,

“Since I’m already here, I guess I ought to huh? I'm just glad you still want me to. I thought since you'd changed, maybe you wouldn’t want-”

The Doctor looked stunned,

"Oh, but I'd love for you to come. Nothing could ever change that."

Rose beamed,

"Okay."

The Doctor coughed nervously,

“It is better with two. Or three, if Jack ever gets over his martyr attitude.”

Rose frowned,

“If he makes you sick, how could you be around him?”

The Doctor shrugged,

“I’d get used to it I suppose. Like any sickness, eventually you build up a resistance. It’s just, after being away for so long, he hit me a bit stronger than I was ready for.”

Deep down he knew it wouldn’t take Jack very long before he was ready to travel again. Without the cheat of his vortex manipulator, he’d only have the Doctor to turn to.

Rose giggled,

“He looked like he wanted to hit you for real before you started talking. Just think, you never gave him that duel you promised way back when.”

The Doctor grimaced,

“Yeah, I bet he’ll still feel like fighting when he finds out what we’re up to.”

Rose sobered instantly,

“What are we up to?”

“We, Rose Tyler, are going on our first date.”

“But you already said you loved me. Bit too far past things for that then yeah? It’s more like our tenth date.”

“It’s never too soon to tell the truth.”

Rose grinned at him, tongue tucked between her teeth,

“I guess I better tell you I love you too, and not keep you in suspense.”

The Doctor suddenly pulled her into his arms, and she felt her breath leave her with a whoosh.

“Oh my precious girl. You’re so much more than I deserve.”

“I’m the lucky one I think.” Rose mumbled into the fabric of his jumper, and he pulled back, gazing down at her, adoration pouring out from those blue orbs.

“Debatable.”

Rose stuck her tongue out,

“Let’s not. Kiss me again?”

“Your wish is my command.”

So he did. They kissed long after the TARDIS had arrived on Woman Wept, and even after they’d finished their hot chocolate and strolled around under the frozen waves, they barely spoke between kisses.

Finally the Doctor and Rose Tyler were together in the TARDIS, just as it should be.

*

_END_


End file.
